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- [00:00]
Tracy V. Wilson
This is an iHeart podcast, Guaranteed Human.
- [00:06]
Grainger Advertiser
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- [00:35]
Holly Fry
Listen to your elders, honey. You might know them from their viral videos, but now the old Gays are pulling back the curtain with their podcast Silver Linings with the Old Gays, brought to you in partnership with I Heart, Ruby Studio and Veeve Healthcare. Hosts Robert, Mick, Bill and Jasse share their favorite pride, memories and the importance of celebrating all year long in honor of Palm Springs Pride. So check out Silver Linings with the old gaze on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [01:04]
LG Gram Advertiser
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- [01:34]
Public Investing Advertiser
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index with AI. It all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like EFTs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member finra, SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not investment recommendation or advice. Complete Disclosures available at public.comDisclosures welcome to.
- [02:45]
Holly Fry
Stuff youf Missed in History Class, a production of iHeartradio.
- [02:55]
Tracy V. Wilson
Hello and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V. Wilson.
- [02:58]
Holly Fry
And I'm Holly Fry.
- [03:00]
Tracy V. Wilson
This episode is coming out on New Year's Eve and so we're taking a look at a fun New Year's Eve from the past. It's a dinner party that took place on New Year's Eve in 1853 inside a life size sculpture of an iguanodon, or to be more accurate, a life size mold of an iguanodon, which was one step in the process of making the final sculpture. They were still in an iguanodon though, that's the important part.
- [03:32]
Holly Fry
This iguanodon sculpture was being made for London's Crystal palace park and we have an episode on the Crystal palace that was re released as a Saturday Classic on January 30, 2021. The Crystal palace was designed by Joseph Paxton for the Great Exhibition that was held in Hyde park in London in 1851. The Crystal palace was made from cast iron and glass, like an enormous greenhouse, and it served as an exhibit hall.
- [03:58]
Tracy V. Wilson
The Great exhibition ran for six months from May to October of 1851, and Parliament had ordered that the Crystal palace had to be removed from Hyde Park. After it was over, Paxton established the Crystal Palace Company under a royal charter and found donors to help pay to deconstruct, move and rebuild the palace and buy a location for it to be moved to. That location was on Sydenham Hill in southeast London, on the grounds of a former mansion called Penge Place. That mansion had only been about 20 years old and it was demolished for the relocation of the Crystal Palace. Crews started reassembling the Crystal palace in this new location in August of 1852.
- [04:44]
Holly Fry
And the resulting Crystal palace park has been described as the world's first amusement park. It was a 200 acre site that would ultimately have extensive gardens, fountains, sculptures and the like. The Crystal palace itself would also have wings of artwork and artifacts and an assortment of exhibits on industry. Its position on a hilltop would give it a commanding view of the area around it while also making it visible from miles away, and this whole thing was meant to be emblematic of Victorian cultural and industrial progress. Work on all of this was going on when the dinner happened, and a train station and other infrastructure were also being built to accommodate the Park's visitors.
- [05:29]
Tracy V. Wilson
The Crystal Palace Company also commissioned a collection of sculptures of prehistoric animals sometimes called Antediluvian monsters, meaning monsters from before the biblical flood in the Book of Genesis. These animals were to be arranged on and around islands in a man made lake in the park. The lake exhibit was supposed to be both fun and educational, in the words of paleontologist and comparative anatomist Richard Owen. In the work Geology and Inhabitants of the Extinct Animals and Plants of each Stratum, which was a guide to this outdoor exhibit, quote the object of the islands in the geological lake is to demonstrate the order of succession or superposition of these layers or strata and to exhibit, restored in form and bulk as when they lived, the most remarkable and characteristic of the extinct animals and plants of each stratum. In other words, if you walked the path along these islands, it would be like walking through a geological timeline illustrated with life sized three dimensional examples.
- [06:39]
Holly Fry
The artist who was commissioned to create these sculptures was Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, who usually went by the name Waterhouse Hawkins or be Waterhouse Hawkins. He was born in London on February 8, 1807 to Thomas and Louisa Anna Waterhouse Hawkins. And he may get his own episode at some point because some of his life story is wild. Case in point, he had two wives, Mary, who he married in 1826 and Louisa who he married 10 years later. While he was still married to Mary and years after today's story takes place, there was also a whole situation involving New York's Tammany hall political machine and the destruction of all of the models that Waterhouse had made for dinosaur dioramas that were supposed to go in Central Park.
- [07:28]
Tracy V. Wilson
As for what's actually relevant to today's episode, Hawkins was an artist and his specialty was natural history. His paintings of animals had been displayed in places like the Royal Academy and the British Institution and he had access to a lot of collections and resources that he could use to research his art. He also illustrated multiple other people's scientific works, including Charles Darwin's the Zoology of the Voyage of the HMS Beagle. Hawkins was a fellow in the Linnaean Society and the Geological Society and a member of the Society of Arts. So this man had a lot of credentials and he had also been an exhibitor and assistant superintendent of the Great Exhibition.
- [08:14]
Holly Fry
These sculptures are known as the Crystal palace dinosaurs today, but for the most part they're not dinosaurs. Dinosaurs were reptiles that lived on land. Yes, we absolutely know that birds evolved from dinosaurs, but we are talking about the ones that are extinct today. These statues include Marine reptiles like ichthyosaurs, an aplesiosaur, a flying pterosaur, amphibians, and several mammals like Megatherium, or giant ground sloth, Xiphidon, which looks something like a camel, and Megaloceros or the Irish elk, which at the time was known as Cervus hibernicus. The sculptures of these and other extinct animals significantly outnumber the ones of true dinosaurs, of which there are only Megalosaurus, Hylaosaurus and two different versions of Iguanodon.
- [09:08]
Tracy V. Wilson
Let me tell you, when I wrote that paragraph, I spent a very long time staring at the names Megaloceros and Megalosaurus, like they just felt like the same word to me. They're not spelled exactly the same, they're very similar. Those three dinosaurs, while there are only three of them, they are important. People who live near fossils have been aware of their existence for millennia. But these are the only three dinosaurs that had been scientifically described when Hawkins started working on these sculptures. They are also the three animals that prompted Richard Owen to coin the word dinosaur in the first. People had found and studied the fossilized remains of a lot of large extinct animals by the 19th century, and Owen saw these three in particular as having some traits in common, including their sacral anatomy. He published an article titled Report on British Fossil Reptiles that grouped them together in a new clade called Dinosauria in 1842.
- [10:18]
Holly Fry
At the same time, there was some disagreement about the specifics of these animals, anatomy and physiology. That's understandable considering that this was a brand new scientific category and a lot of the fossils that had been unearthed were far from complete. What's most relevant to today's episode is that there were two competing versions of what an Iguanodon looked like. Today, the basic definition of a dinosaur includes that they had an erect posture with their legs under their bodies. But in the mid 19th century, some interpretation of the Iguanodon had its legs out to the side, more like a crocodile. The two Iguanodon sculptures that Hawkins created for the Crystal Palace Gardens reflect these two different interpretations. One of them is standing upright on four straight, stocky legs, and the other looks like a giant lizard with a more sprawled out posture. Both of them have a small horn on their nose, which later fossil discoveries revealed was really part of the animal's thumb.
- [11:19]
Tracy V. Wilson
Beyond these two competing versions of the Iguanodon, there were more personal disagreements among some of the scientists who discovered and wrote about these specimens. Although really disagreement is putting it generously. Gideon Mantell is credited with two of the first three dinosaur discoveries, Iguanodon in 1822 and Hylasaurus in 1832. Gideon's wife Marianne was a huge part of his work, including creating hundreds of lithographs to illustrate his books. And she is generally recognized as being the person who found the fossilized teeth that Gideon later named Iguanodon for their resemblance to giant iguana teeth. Gideon Mantell discovered a whole array of vertebrate and invertebrate fossils. He wrot 12 different books, most of which were about geology and fossils, and he was a member of the Royal Society and the Geological Society of London. He also won a whole series of UK and international awards for his work.
- [12:27]
Holly Fry
But Richard Owen, who had a reputation for being a hateful, petty person, tried to dismiss Mantel's work and take credit for some of his discoveries. For example, Owen tried to give himself and zoologist Georges Cuvier the credit for the Iguanodon discovery. Cuvier was one of the people Mantell had talked to about the Iguanodon teeth when he was trying to figure out what they were. Owen's writings often implied that Mantell did not know what he was talking about. And there's speculation that Owen worked behind the scenes to keep Mantell's papers from being published. Mantell once said of Owen that it was a pity that, quote, a man so talented should be so dastardly and envious.
- [13:08]
Tracy V. Wilson
By the time Hawkins started working on these sculptures, Mantell had died, possibly due to an opium he was taking to try to manage a very painful spinal condition. Owen's name, though, had become synonymous with dinosaurs. And he was the one who provided a lot of the scientific feedback on Hawkins sculpture designs. We will get to more on that after a sponsor break. Hola.
- [13:37]
Honey German
It's honey German here. Let's be honest. In our comunida, especially us mujeres, we do it all. We work, we take care of la familia, we hustle. Paque no faltenada. But even the strongest need a break. That's why I love talking about real stuff on my podcast. Gracias. Come again. Because we're all out here doing our best and sometimes having aling into esquina eso ac like a State Farm agent. They're the kind of gente that shows up, listens and helps you get the coverage you need. It's not about needing help. It's about knowing you deserve to feel supported. Comon buen besino State Farm esta ay. State Farm proudly supports Michael Dura podcast network. Escucha to Shows Favorito Wherever you listen.
- [14:20]
Holly Fry
To your podcasts, listen to your elders, honey. You might know them from their viral videos, but now the Old Gays pull back the curtain on their podcast Silver Linings with the Old Gays, brought to you in partnership with I Hearts, Ruby Studio and Veeve Healthcare For a very special bonus episode. Hosts Robert, Mick, Bill and Ja talk about how pride has evolved over the years and their favorite memories, all in celebration. Celebration of Palm Springs Pride because pride should be celebrated all year round. Listen to these fabulous friends swap stories exploring how queer life has evolved over the decades and the silver linings they've collected along the way. Each episode dives into hot topics, from safe sex and online dating to untangling Gen Z lingo, as well as insights on how music, art and fashion show up in queer culture. So check out Silver Linings, a show about how pride ages like fine wine, available on the iHeartRadio app or where wherever you get your podcasts.
- [15:23]
Tracy V. Wilson
And now.
- [15:24]
Shaquille O'Neal
Superhuman Shack I keep telling them not to say that. I'm no superhuman. Believe it or not, I struggle with moderate obstructive sleep apnea, or osa, in adults with obesity. Moderate to severe OSA is a condition where breathing is interrupted during sleep, with loud snoring, choking, gasping for air, and even daytime fatigue. Let's just say it can sound a lot like this. Sound familiar? Learn more@don'tsleeponosa.com this information is provided by.
- [15:52]
Tracy V. Wilson
Lily, a medicine company.
- [15:54]
LG Gram Advertiser
Did you know Microsoft has officially ended Support for Windows 10? Upgrade to Windows 11 with an LG Gram laptop voted PCMag's Reader's Choice Top Laptop Brand for 2025. Thin and ultra lightweight, the LG Gram keeps you productive anywhere, and Windows 11 gives you access to free security updates and ongoing feature upgrades. Visit LGUSA.com iheart for great seasonal savings on LG Gram laptops with Windows 11 PCMag Reader's Choice used with permission. All rights reserved.
- [16:30]
Tracy V. Wilson
Waterhouse Hawkins had a workshop in a shed on the grounds of the Crystal Palace Gardens, and that's where he worked on the enormous sculptures that he had been commissioned to create for the park. In the words of Rutledge's Guide to the Crystal palace and park at Sydenham, with descriptions of the principal works of science and art and of the terraces, fountains, geological formations, and restoration of extinct animals therein exhibited, this workshop was quote at the lower end of the park, in a rude and temporary wooden building, almost inaccessible for deep ruts and acres of swamp and mud, a miniature Serbonian bog.
- [17:14]
Holly Fry
Hawkins starting point was research, learning everything that he could about the anatomy of each extinct animal. Then, in his words, I made my sketch models to scale either a 6th or 12th of the natural size. Designing such attitudes as my long acquaintance with the recent and living forms of the animal kingdom enabled me to adapt to the extinct species. I was endeavoring to restore these sketch models. I submitted in all instances to the criticism of Professor Owen, who with his great knowledge and profound learning, most liberally aided me in every difficulty.
- [17:52]
Tracy V. Wilson
Once Owen had approved this model, Hawkins had to figure out how to translate that into a life sized mold in a finished statue that could each withstand their own weight. Again, in his words quote, Some of These models contained 30 tons of clay which had to be supported on four legs, as their natural history characteristics would not allow of my having recourse to any of the expedients for support allowed to sculptors. In an ordinary case, I could have no trees nor rooks, no foliage to support these great bodies, which to be natural, must be fairly built on their feet. Four legs, in the instance of the Iguanodon, is not less than building a house upon four columns, as the quantities of material which the standing Iguanodon is composed consist of four iron columns, 9ft long by 7 inches diameter, 600 bricks, 655 inch half round drain tiles, 900 plain tiles, 38 casks of cement, 90 casks of broken stone, making a total of 640 bushels of artificial stone. These with 100ft of iron hooping and 20ft of cube inch bar, constitute the bones, sinews and muscles of this large model, the largest of which there is any record of a casting being made.
- [19:22]
Holly Fry
So once he'd figured out how to make and build the clay model, he made a plaster cast of it, working in sections. And he used the plaster casts to make the pieces of the final sculpture out of concrete. And he would transport those pieces to their location in the park to be assembled. Smaller animals or smaller pieces of big animals were often made of solid concrete. But things like the large central body of the Iguanodon were usually hollow and then filled with brickwork. Hawkins had a team of laborers and assistants to actually do all this work. But we really don't know anything about those workers.
- [19:59]
Tracy V. Wilson
Yeah, he gets cited continually, but there has to have been just an army of people doing the physical work on all of this. This was the first time anybody had tried to make life sized sculptures of these extinct animals. And the process was time consuming and difficult and labor intensive. Soon, Hawkins was behind schedule. The park had also faced an assortment of other difficulties. So when the Crystal palace was moved from Hyde park, the goal had been to get the site open for public visitors as fast as possible. But the project was plagued by bad weather, including ongoing rain and high winds. As one writer put it, quote, thus far, the whole fairy creation, like the monsters said to be engendered by the sun on the banks of the Nile, is struggling to extricate its limbs from elemental mud. Everywhere it is mud. Mud excepting where the mountain of granite has already been reared. A graceful slope already turfed, or a long train of planks bends under processions of wheelbarrows.
- [21:08]
Holly Fry
Do you think there was mud?
- [21:10]
Tracy V. Wilson
There was so much mud.
- [21:11]
Holly Fry
Apparently this affected construction at the park and the railroad and roadways that were being built to support it, and the planting of the gardens, the plumbing of the fountains, basically everything about the infrastructure of this park plan. It was all behind schedule and it was all over budget, including the dinosaurs. And to add to all the pressure, the Queen was very interested in the park and its progress. Victoria and Albert toured the park site on November 18, including a tour of Hawkins dinosaur workshop.
- [21:44]
Tracy V. Wilson
All of this ultimately fed into a plan to host a New Year's Eve dinner and to serve that dinner in the mold for the more elephant like Iguanodon statue. This dinner would be part public relations, part investor relations, something that could be written about in the newspapers and stoke public interest in the dinosaur sculptures in the park and could help appease the investors who were very anxious about the state of the project and how much longer it was going to take for everything to actually be open.
- [22:17]
Holly Fry
In the words of the Illustrated London Daily News, quote, in the mold of this colossal work of art, for as such, it must deservedly rank very high. Mr. Hawkins conceived the idea of bringing together those great names whose high position in the science of paleontology and geology would form the best guarantee for the severe truthfulness of his works and at the same time show to the public the high tone of criticism and knowledge which the directors of this truly national undertaking require those officers to sustain to whom they confide the carrying out of any important part of their plan which so particularly bears on the education of the people.
- [22:59]
Tracy V. Wilson
Hawkins created hand drawn invitations for this dinner, apparently drawing them all one by one, rather than like making the design for one card and having copies of that printed. There are a few different versions of this that have survived until today, and they all feature an illustration of people having dinner in the body of a dinosaur statue. That is so tall that somebody is having to climb up a ladder to get into it. There's also a pterodactyl with an outstretched wing in the foreground, and the inside of that wing is where the actual text of the invitation is written. So all these designs differed from each other, but they had in common that there was a dinosaur with people eating in it and a pterodactyl wing. For example, the invitation sent to geologist Joseph Preswich said, quote, Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins requests the honor of Mr. Joseph Prestwich's company at dinner in the mold of the Iguanodon at the Crystal palace on Saturday evening, December 31st at 5 o', clock, 18:53. An answer will oblige there's some fuzziness.
- [24:10]
Holly Fry
In terms of exactly how many people were invited to this dinner and and how many actually showed up. Those invitations went out just a few days before the event, so some of the invitees probably had other plans lined up. Most sources say that 21 guests attended in addition to Hawkins, who was the host.
- [24:30]
Tracy V. Wilson
We will get to the dinner itself after a sponsor break.
- [24:36]
Freddie Prinze Jr.
Hey, I'm Freddie Prinze Jr. And I talk a lot about twists, turns and the unexpected moments that happened inside the ring on Wrestling With Freddy. But the one thing I've learned Never turn your back on your opponents in the ring unless you have your tag partner with you. It helps to have backup, like real life backup, the kind you can call when life throws you something unexpected. That's when I recommend you reach out to your State Farm agent. They can help you choose the coverage you need before anything happens, and they're ready to help you file a claim when it does. When it's something out of the ordinary or just part of everyday life life. It's good to know someone's in your corner. Like a good neighbor. State Farm is there. And thanks to State Farm support of Michael Tura Podcast Network, you can catch new episodes of Wrestling With Freddie wherever you listen to podcasts.
- [25:24]
Holly Fry
Listen to your elders, honey. You might know them from their viral videos, but now the Old Gays pull back the curtain on their podcast Silver Linings with the Old Gays, brought to you in partnership with I Hearts, Ruby Studio and Vive Healthcare for a very special bonus episode. Hosts Robert, Mick, Bill and Jahsay talk about how pride has evolved over the years and their favorite memories, all in celebration of Palm Springs Pride. Because pride should be celebrated all year round. Listen to these fabulous friends swap stories exploring how queer life has evolved over the decades and the silver linings they've collected along the way. Each episode dives into hot topics from safe sex and online dating to untangling Gen Z lingo, as well as insights on how music, art, art and fashion show up in queer culture. So check out Silver Linings, a show about how pride ages like fine wine. Available on the iHeartRadio app or wherever you get your podcasts.
- [26:25]
Tracy V. Wilson
Everybody knows Shaq, but off camera, he's.
- [26:27]
Holly Fry
Just a regular guy.
- [26:28]
Shaquille O'Neal
People never believe me when I say I'm just like them. I take out the trash, do dishes, and I struggle with moderate obstructive sleep apnea, or osa. And a lot of adults with obesity also struggle with moderate to severe osa. You know, those scary breathing interruptions during sleep, the loud snoring, choking and daytime fatigue? I knew I had to talk to my doctor. Don't sleep on the symptoms. Learn more at don'tsleeponosa.com this information is.
- [26:53]
Tracy V. Wilson
Provided by Lilly, a medicine company.
- [26:55]
LG Gram Advertiser
Did you know? Microsoft has officially ended Support for Windows 10 upgrade to Windows 11 with an LG Gram laptop voted PCMag's Reader's Choice Top Laptop Brand for 2025. Thin and ultra lightweight, the LG Gram keeps you productive anywhere, and Windows 11 gives you access to free security updates and ongoing feature upgrades. Visit lgusa.com iheart for great seasonal savings on LG Gram laptops with Windows 11. PCMag reader's choice used with permission. All rights reserved.
- [27:31]
Tracy V. Wilson
Most of the descriptions of the New Year's Eve 1853 dinner in the Iguanodon mold at Crystal palace park are in things like newspapers and journals. Most of them contradict each other on at least some points. One of the go to sources is an illustration that appeared in the Illustrated London Daily News, but that was an illustration that Waterhouse Hawkins had drawn himself. He probably drew it before the dinner took place to help promote the event and the park. It's not clear where the Iguanodon mold was when the dinner was held in it, but it might have still been in Hawkins's workshop, in spite of all the ruts in the mud involved getting to the workshop. Most sources say that a tent or an awning had been placed over the Iguanodon for the dinner. If that dinner was held in the shed, that probably would have helped the guests stay warm and dry, since the roof was very leaky. According to one source, the tent was left over from a birthday party that Hawkins had hosted for one of his daughters.
- [28:37]
Holly Fry
In the words of Routledge's Guide to the Crystal palace and park quote. An awning of pink and white drapery was raised above the novel Banqueting hall and small banners bearing the names of Conybeare, Buckland Forbes, Owen, Mantell and other well known geologists gave character and interest to the scene. Owen and Mantell's names should be recognizable at this point in the episode. The others were geologist William Conybeare, minister and paleontologist William Buckland, and naturalist Edward Forbes. The illustration that ran in the Illustrated London Daily News showed only four names, Buckland, Owen, Mantell and Cuvier.
- [29:17]
Tracy V. Wilson
Richard Owen was treated as the guest of honor and he was seated at the head of the table, which also put him in the head of the Iguanodon. Other guests mentioned in various sources included Edward Forbes, Joseph Preswich, ornithologist John Gould, and Francis Fuller, who was managing director of the Crystal Palace Park Company along with various company directors. It's likely that at least some of the guests ate at a table that was set up next to the Iguanodon, since even though it was life size, it probably would not have comfortably seated everyone around a table for dinner.
- [29:56]
Holly Fry
The bill of fare printed for the dinner lists an eight course meal Soups, mock turtle, julienne and hare fish, cod and oyster sauce, filet of whiting and turbo a lalendaise removes which were just a course served in place of one that is removed Roast turkey, ham, raised pigeon pie and boiled chicken and celery sauce. Entrees cautelettes de moutonotomat, curry de l' opereux au ries so curry with rice, salmill de perdri and mayonnaise game pheasants, woodcocks and snipes. Sweets Macedoine jelly, orange jelly, bavaroise, Charlotte Russe, French pastry, nougat a la Chantilly and dessert Grapes, apples, pears, almonds and raisins, French plums, pines, filberts, walnuts, etc. Etc. Accompanying all of this were wine options. Sherry, Madeira, port Moselle, claret.
- [30:57]
Tracy V. Wilson
According to one account, most of this meal was prepared by Hawkins's cook after making arrangements to have everything reheated in the kitchen of a nearby tavern. The bill of fare credits Charles Higginbottom of the Anerley Tavern as well as European on Mansion House Street.
- [31:17]
Holly Fry
After dinner, Owen offered a toast to the late Gideon Mantell, who had died the previous November, simply saying quote to the memory of Mantell, discoverer of the Iguanodon, and he also gave a speech on the sculptures and the discoveries that had led to their being Made in the words of Routledge's guide, quote, the professor paid an eloquent tribute to the value of the labors in the wide field of geology and paleontology of such men as Currier, Hunter and Cony Bear. He told the company how the researches of Cuvier in comparative anatomy had provided the means of reconstructing an extinct animal almost from a single fossil bone. For so perfect was the individuality of each species of animals, and so peculiarly adapted with the construction of their parts to the purpose for which they were destined, that a skillful observer could tell with the most perfect accuracy to what species of animal any particular bone belonged to. The researches of Hunter had confirmed the theories of Cuvier, and from a single bone or a single tooth, Cony Bear, Buckland and others had succeeded in building up an entire animal.
- [32:27]
Tracy V. Wilson
Apparently, when Owen got up to offer a toast and mentioned Mantell's name, there were people who were like, oh. And then when he just toasted in his memory, there was a sigh of relief. After this address on the making of these statues and the paleontology that had gone into them, the entire assembly also sang a song. The song was called the Jolly Old Beast, and it had been written by Professor Forbes. It started, quote, a thousand ages underground his skeleton had lain, but now his body's big and round and he's himself again. His bones like atoms wrapped in clay, his ribs of iron stout. Where is the brute alive today that dares with him turn out beneath his hide he's got inside the souls of living men who dare our sorry and now deride with life in him again. And then a chorus came that went, the Jolly old beast is not deceased, there's life in him again. And then there were more verses and refrain after that.
- [33:35]
Holly Fry
This party went on past midnight, and after everyone rang in the New Year, many of them traveled back to central London by train, although the Crystal palace station was not complete yet, so they would have had to travel to the nearest train station.
- [33:49]
Tracy V. Wilson
Yeah, I'm a little curious about exactly what happened, whether they had made special arrangements for the train to, like, come out to where the station would be, or whether people were transported elsewhere. It's a little vague, but as planned, the write ups of the evening did appear in several publications, including the Illustrated London daily news on January 7, 1854, and then later in Punch and other publications. Stuff progressed with the building of the park, and by February the Crystal Palace Company had announced that it would be opening in May. It finally opened just a little bit later than that on June 10, 1854, with Queen Victoria conducting the opening ceremony.
- [34:32]
Holly Fry
Hawkins had not finished all the sculptures yet, though, and before long he ran into a problem which he probably did not expect, which is that new scientific discoveries rendered his sculptures obsolete. My heart breaks for him over this.
- [34:46]
Tracy V. Wilson
Yeah. But with the stuff that was read about entire dinosaurs being built up from one bone or tooth, it's not fully surprising from the modern perspective.
- [34:55]
Holly Fry
Yeah. I just think about all the work he had put in and then to be like, that's not actually what it looked like.
- [35:02]
Tracy V. Wilson
Yeah.
- [35:04]
Holly Fry
We had already mentioned that he had given his iguanodon sculptures a horn from. That really should have been essentially a thumb, but that is minor compared to a lot of it. And many of his sculptures looked really dated and inaccurate within just a few years of their completion. They reflected cutting edge thought in the fields of paleontology and zoology when he made them, but today they look almost comically wrong.
- [35:29]
Tracy V. Wilson
The iguanodons are a good example. One of them, as we said earlier, just looks like a humongous lizard. It sprawled out, it's got its legs all off to the side. Even the more correct iguanodon that the dinner was served in does not look anything like iguanodons are represented today. Among other things, in 1878, mine workers in Belgium found a whole collection of fossilized iguanodon statues, which dramatically changed people's conception of what they looked like. We've compared this sculpture to an elephant and it had very straight elephant like legs. But today an iguanodon is usually drawn or sculpted with much thinner, more sculpted, less tree trunk like legs, as well as a posture that would let it move around on either two legs or four.
- [36:22]
Holly Fry
Research that has been carried out in recent years also suggests that Hawkins originally completed 37 of these statues, but he didn't get to finish all of the ones that he had planned for the park. The Crystal Palace Company cut his funding in 1855. The sculptures that were still in the works, but not finished yet at that point were scrapped. And at that point, the ones he had yet to complete included a mastodon and other extinct mammals. This was probably just about money. The sculptures were the most expensive thing in the park, and £13,000 had already been spent on the ones that were complete.
- [36:59]
Tracy V. Wilson
It does seem like the creation of these statues helped fuel the British public's fascination with dinosaurs and other extinct animals. In the 19th century, dinosaurs were really a big deal as they were first described scientifically and people became interested in them. Hawkins also became really in demand as an artist of natural history, and he was commissioned to make dinosaur art in the United States and elsewhere. The small scale models he had designed as part of his planning process for these sculptures were also reproduced, and they were available for sale to places like schools and museums.
- [37:38]
Holly Fry
The Crystal palace had a major fire in 1866, but it was repaired, it continued to be used, and it went through various expansions and milestones before being destroyed in another fire in 1936. There is some speculation that if this later fire had not happened, it still probably would have been destroyed during the Blitz in World War II.
- [38:01]
Tracy V. Wilson
It does seem like it would have been a likely target. Yeah. Over the years, the Crystal palace dinosaurs gradually fell into disrepair and some of them were lost entirely. A restoration project started in the 1950s. Although that process involved some of the statues being moved, they wound up in parts of the park where they experienced even more wear and tear than they had in their earlier locations. Another big restoration and renovation project started in 2002. At that point there were 29 sculptures remaining. There's current restoration work still going on. It is expected to be completed in the spring of 2026. Today, the remaining statues have grade one listed status, which is given to buildings and structures of exceptional interest in the.
- [38:53]
Holly Fry
Uk, Crystal palace park is still a public park and it has Grade 2 listed status on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. It is supported by the Crystal Palace Park Trust and operated by Bromley Council. The Trust and the Council are currently carrying out a huge regeneration project at the park.
- [39:14]
Tracy V. Wilson
Yeah, that's a project that includes not just like restoring of the park, but also like the plant at the park and regeneration of those plants. I honestly love these statues in spite of and because of the goofy aspect they have by today's standards.
- [39:35]
Holly Fry
Listen, it makes them great. Do you have some listener mail?
- [39:42]
Tracy V. Wilson
I do. This is from Anna and Ana. Wrote to say hi Holly and Tracy. I've written a few times before. Not sure if they make it your way or not. I just saw this article in my local news. Yay Buffalo. And got very excited and audibly exclaimed in front of my family while scrolling my phone when I saw it. It's about Elias Parker being posthumously admitted to the New York bar. Although it is many years overdue to him, it's always fun for me anytime Western New York and familiar places are mentioned in your episodes. I'm sure everyone feels their hometown is overflowing with history and Buffalo is no different. Although I write this, it is currently 8 degrees out. I won't deny we have some real trash weather here. I would be beyond delighted if you made a stop here for a show, perhaps in the warmer months. I'm sure many listeners have emailed you about Parker's belated recognition, but just in case, here's a link it is a link to an article that is about Ely Parker being admitted to the bar in New York. I now want to listen to your episode on Parker all over again and likely will with my husband and children on our two hour drive to Seneca Falls tomorrow. I've attached photos of our house panther shadow for your amusement. She's a bit of a dud and not the brightest, but we love her dearly. Especially our 14 year old son who's never too cool to admit he has an inner cat lady. In the event he needs me to hold on or wait a minute for him, he will tell me to pause for a brief sponsor break Is there such thing as too much stuff you missed in history class? Our whole family loves listening to you and thank you so much for everything you do to create this show. It is truly, truly a gift. Sincerely, Anna so thank you so much for sending this. I don't actually remember whether I had seen this news before. I do have a whole assortment of things that I'm always looking at for preparing Unearthed episodes, which is actually what I'm working on right now, the next installment of Unearthed. But yes, this is something that came out in November and posthumously admitting Ely Parker to the bar in New York.
- [41:50]
Holly Fry
So cool.
- [41:51]
Tracy V. Wilson
Which is really cool. Yeah, a belated recognition for sure. So thank you so much Anna for this email. If you would like to send us a note about this or any other podcast, we're at historypodcast. Com and you can subscribe to our show on the iHeartRadio app and anywhere else you like to get your podcasts. Stuff youf Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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